Yes, for longer than 5 minutes. Unlike vbulletin board, where only moderators can see edit history, Discourse allows all posters to see a post’s history. So what harm is there in allowing a poster to edit their post? They can’t “re-write the past”. What they CAN do is fix an awkward typo or add a clarification that they realize they need after a reply or two.
Agreed. The 5-minute rule is a relic of the past. It’s no longer necessary.
If the editing history is visible, then it would appear to invalidate the old (and quite sensible) reason for limiting editing to 5 minutes only.
In the circumstances I’m another vote for ‘enable editing’.
can’t think of a single reason to disallow edits now.
Chiming in again in favor of unlimited editing.
You posted, five minutes passed, we’ll always be able to see what you said with or without editing. Might as well make it unlimited.
Agreed. Editing is super useful!
Agreed. Since the edit history is public information, there seems to be no risk to allowing unlimited edit privileges.
Under discussion. Will get back to you later on this.
Yes, everyone can see but we don’t want people changing stuff willy-nilly. You shouldn’t have to page through edits to find out what people said.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
I for one would opt for at least a 10 minutes period. I do like rigor, but having to rush to fix my mistakes often makes me make more mistakes.
10 or 15 min would be better than 5 min, but I don’t like the idea of a longer edit window than that.
I don’t want a post to be modified after there have been a number of replies to it.
It also looks to me like they have changed things so that you can’t see the edits.
It’s worse. If you try to edit too late, you will get a solid black screen, removable only by 3 clicks of the back button. But it just goes back to the aborted edit, and any click (save edit, or cancel) returns to the black screen, forever locking you out of that thread.
Being able to edit the original post indefinitely can be a useful tool for updating results or even providing links to major milestones in the thread.
(I’ve seen people mention not being able to figure out how to link to a specific post in a thread but I assume it’s possible.)
Editing is great for game threads. The OP can state the rules, and show the current standings, whatever they are. (starting with “this space reserved for standings”, then being replaced with “these people are playing the game” and then updated throughout the game.) All in the easy-to-find first or second post.
It’s also good for gathering information.
Post 1: “Hey everyone, I’m trying to find examples of X, can you find some for me?”
Post 2: This post reserved for examples of X
Posts 3-5000, various use replies, examples, jokes, digressions
And the OP updates post2 to add summaries and links to all the good examples other posters supply.
I was going to agree with that. I don’t want to have to hunt up old versions in order to see what was being replied to; but five minutes is too short, because as UY_Scuti says rushing to edit can lead to screwing up the post worse than it was before.
But puzzlegal’s also got a point.
So now I’m not sure what I do want.
If we can see back history, will it be clear in the post that it’s been edited, and a one-click link to the edits provided in or at the edited post?
Yeah, it puts a pencil icon at the top of the thread. You can see that on some posts now that have been edited by system.
Click on it, and the previous version is shown on a panel on the left. The current version is in a panel in the right. Deleted text is red, added text is green.
There’re arrow buttons at the bottom to go back to even earlier versions, all the way back to the original.
Admittedly, I have run into problems with unlimited editing. But they were people problems more than textual problems.
Someone posted some information and asked for opinions.
Based on that information, I gave mine.
She edited her post to include some additional information that, had I known it earlier, would have changed my opinion.
Other people chided me for my opinion since they hadn’t read the original.
They shut up pretty quick when I sent them to the edit history.
So as long as we’re all aware that unlimited editing is a thing, we should be ok. Especially if we make it a point of our culture to add ETA: xxxxxxxxxx if we ever make a change to our posts.
Yes, if you make a substantive change, it’s always best to say “edited to add”. On boards that allow editing, if I just fix some formatting or a mis-spelled word, I don’t usually bother unless someone might have been confused, or someone has commented on the original version. But even then, if someone has teased me about a mis-spelled word or something, I like to acknowledge that I fixed it. I think that’s just being a polite poster.
Yeah, this is exactly right. I’m not sure if it’s settable per forum, but we could have unlimited editing in Thread Games or whatever, and limited in the more discussion-oriented fora. But c’mon, we don’t even have timeouts any more. Y’all can fix your typos in 5 minutes.
At the top of the thread, or at the top of the post?
(At the top of the post would be a lot more useful.)
Top of the post, sorry.
ETA: There may also be one at the top of your own threads that you can use to change your title or even move your thread to another forum. If that’s turned on and you have the necessary permissions (most Discourse boards set that to TL2).